Former President Donald Trump on Sunday falsely accused his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, of using artificial intelligence to give the appearance of a more extensive crowd during a Wednesday campaign rally near Detroit, Michigan.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane,” the former reality TV star posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Sunday.
“She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.”
“Look, we caught her with a fake ‘crowd.’ There was nobody there!” Trump added in a subsequent post.
Shortly after, he also posted: “EVERYTHING ABOUT KAMALA IS FAKE!”
The twice-impeached Republican presidential candidate, who is seemingly obsessed with the concept of crowd sizes, was echoing conservative commentator Chuck Callesto ― who has 37.5k followers on Truth social and 760.5K followers on X, formerly Twitter. Callesto previously made false claims online that have gone viral.
The campaign for Harris responded in a post on X claiming that the photo of the rally was real.
“1) This is an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan,” the post said, using a number that aligned with a Thursday report from local news outlet MLive. “2) Trump has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week... Low energy?”
The campaign also posted a video on Truth Social showing the full scope of the crowd. The post read: “Warning: The content of this video may upset @realDonaldTrump.”
Harris previously fell victim to the use of artificial intelligence at the beginning of her campaign for president when someone replaced the audio of her campaign video with a similar-sounding voice articulating something completely different than what was said in the real video.
“I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate,” the voice said over the video.
Trump himself has been at the mercy of misinformation spread by AI-made images. In March 2023, images created with a tool called Midjourney v5 surfaced online depicting a dramatic scene of a struggle between numerous New York law enforcement officers and Trump. (Trump, who is now a convicted felon, wasn’t arrested until August 2023.)
By contrast, in a June interview with YouTuber and pro-wrestler Logan Paul, the former president prided himself on his own use of AI to “so beautifully” craft a speech. (It’s unclear if and when the speech was used).